Qatar Dispute Strengthens AUD

With the currency markets moving every two seconds, it can be vitally important to be aware of what is driving the currencies in or out of your favour. The table below shows the difference when buying £200,000 over the last 30 days.

Currency Pair

% Change

Difference on £200,000

GBP/AUD

2.85%

AUD $9,754

AUD Rises On Back Of Commodity Price Expectations

The reputation of AUD as a commodity based currency means the value is highly correlated with the prices of a wide range of raw materials such as iron ore, gas and oil, therefore as the price of iron ore rises so does the value of AUD.

News emerged yesterday afternoon of a string of Arab countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt breaking diplomatic ties with Qatar by closing borders and cutting transport links. This in turn has boosted the value of AUD across the board over speculation excluding the world’s largest exporter of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) could lead to a global under supply of the commodity and force prices on an upward trajectory.

With the Chinese economy, recently downgraded to AA3 by Moody’s, accounting for more than 33% of Australian exports and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) confirming interest rates are to be kept on hold in the early hours of this morning with no signs of hikes in the imminent future we may see few opportunities for AUD strength in the short to medium term. Therefore, if you have a AUD selling requirement it may be wise to act sooner rather than later and take advantage of the strong gains made across the board before they are whittled away, a trade of 250,000 AUD could gain you an extra £3,250 when compared to this time last month.

Economic Data Releases For AUD

This week we see a host of economic data releases for Australia, kicking off with AIG Performance of Construction Index released on Wednesday at 12:30am, measuring construction market conditions in the short and medium term. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for Q1 released at 02:30am, measuring the total value of all goods and services produced in the Australian economy. Finally, Thursday at 02:30am we see the release of Import, Export and Trade Balance figures for April.

Thank you for reading my Australian Dollar report, if you have any questions about exchange rates please feel free to get in touch on 01494 725 353.

C. Meineke

Exchange rates on this page are interbank rates and indicate where the market is trading to show the performance of a currency pair. They are not indicative of the rates which we offer. The information on this web site is provided free of charge for information purposes only. It does not constitute advice to any person on any matter. Foreign Currency Direct plc. ("FCD") makes every reasonable effort to ensure that this information is accurate and complete but assumes no responsibility for and gives no warranty with regard to the same.